¶ … Federal Drug Association is studying to find out if people are getting prescription drugs that they do not actually need. A large number of doctors would like to see the American Medical Association ban prescription drug advertisements across all forms of media. A San Diego doctor, Dr. David Priver, claims that it is "catastrophic in my office, with patients coming in and demanding a drug they saw on television." In sixty nine percent of the instances a patient asks a doctor for a prescription drug advertised on TV they will walk home with that drug, an FDA survey has found. (Calfee, John (2002) proposal was drafted in June 2001 by Dr. Angelo Agro of the AMA's New Jersey delegation because he also feels that advertisements undermine doctors' credibility when physicians do not agree that the advertised drugs are the best choice for a patient that comes in and demands it saying, "the patient is at best incompletely informed and at worst...deluded." Proposed resolutions asked the AMA to petition the FDA to ban direct to consumer prescription drug ads to curb what many opinions believe to be interference from the pharmaceutical industry into the doctor patient relationship. (Huang, Alison November, 2002)
Drug companies that portray their drugs to substantially improve the lives of the afflicted individuals are not quick to stress the dangers and serious side effects that can endanger lives. The new drugs advertised have a twenty percent chance of ending in an FDA drug recall or having additional FDA safety warnings placed on their labels within 25 years. Advertisements account for hundreds of millions of dollars every year that drug companies spend.
Initially, the AMA opposed prescription drug advertisements but the current policy states that they are acceptable as long as they include a clear health message, refer patients to their doctors...
The National Medical Association found in April 2002 that advertisements do not live up to that. Manufacturers once only advertised prescription drugs to mainly doctors, but in 1997, the FDA loosened its drug promotion rules and advertising aimed at ordinary people tripled to nearly $2.5 billion a year. From 1996-2000, the New England Journal of Medicine found that drug firms increased their spending on television advertising to consumers seven fold. (Kessler, D.A. 1990)
Some people argue that direct-to-consumer promotion provides a service by increasing public awareness of medical conditions and encouraging educated communication between patients and providers. Furthermore, direct-to-consumer ads encourage consumers to act as independent decision-makers, able to weigh the benefits and risks of their health choices. They believe that one of the reasons that there are not more of the drugs sold is because the public does not know there is a drug out there that can help them. At the same time, critics fear that drug companies will trade on the public's lack of medical knowledge to obscure products' risks and adverse effects. Physicians complain that they must devote increasing amounts of scarce time to dissuading patients from taking drugs that advertising has led them to believe are easy. (Thoen, Eric 1998)
When consumers watch the advertisements on television, it is almost like they are getting a free medical consultation for free. The advertisements give a list of symptoms that just about anyone in the world could have, then they explain how their drug help to fix the problem. One of the biggest advertisements is for the medications that children with an attention deficit disorder take. The drugs are things such as Ritalin and Conertra, which are mind-altering drugs…
